


you've been running and hiding much too long (you know it's just your foolish pride)

by lesbiansombra (syballineInferno)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: @ blizzard please let my boys be happy also let symmetra know i love her, Alternate Universe - Animal Shelter, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anxiety Attacks, Character Development, Dad Music, Developing Relationship, Eventual Romance, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Getting Together, M/M, Matchmaking, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Slow Burn, Summer, Therapy, a few others cameo but not enough to get a tag, animal rescue/animal sanctuary au, discussion of triggers alcohol etc in later chapters, dont want to spoil but if you're concerned please message me, i dont know ill add to the tags as i add chapters, like it's discussed, romcom shenanigans, theres a few mentions of zarmei and they show up a little but??
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-26 04:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10779783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/syballineInferno/pseuds/lesbiansombra
Summary: For the last decade and change, Jack Morrison has run Overwatching Animal Rescue and Sanctuary, and he's fine with that, really. He's got friends, he's got his therapy dog, he's got a solid job, he has regular volunteers he's (secretly) fond of, he loves what he does at the rescue. He has his everything together, and he's not planning on that drastically changing anytime soon.Then Gabriel Reyes walks back into his life on a June afternoon and turns Jack's life upside down.(or: Jack runs an animal sanctuary. Gabriel's kids are looking for a pet. Rom-com shenanigans ensue.)





	you've been running and hiding much too long (you know it's just your foolish pride)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything starts. Or: introductions, new volunteers, and Gabriel's back in town.

_and be a simple kind of man_

_oh, be something you love and understand_

_be a simple kind of man_

_won’t you do this for me son, if you can?_

_-simple man, lynyrd skynyrd / shinedown_

* * *

 

_Sunday, June 4, 2017_

Opening was his favorite time of day.

There was something calm about it: no bustling people, no children running into poke the dogs or anything. Even his regular volunteers, no matter how secretly fond of them Jack was, usually weren’t here right at eight.

The dogs had already been taken out to go to the bathroom, the cats had their litter cleaned, and he’d already taken care of the bigger animals and birds. Every morning at exactly eight, Jack flipped the sign on Overwatching Animal Sanctuary and Rescue, then went through the system of feeding all the animals for the morning.

It was quiet, other than the barks (from the dog “wing”, to the right of the lobby), meows/hisses (from the cat “wing” to the left of the lobby) and the songs and chirps (from the birds, in the back, next to the rooms where Jack handled paperwork, the rooms people privately met/introduced dogs, the door to the back with all the large animals, and the stairs to Jack’s home.)

During the school year, most of his volunteers only did after class and weekends, which was fine with Jack, but school for most of the area had let out on Friday. Which meant both a boom in adoptions for the next few months, and most of his regular volunteers hanging around way more. (Which - confused Jack. Don’t kids these days spend most of their time at malls??)

Jack just settled in, moving to start with the dog wing on feeding. His own dog, a trained therapy St. Bernard named Bonnie followed him, usually waiting outside the door, thumping her tail as he fed the dogs, then the cats, then the big animals, then the birds. Like every morning.

Like clockwork, at exactly 9:33 AM, a noisy, probably overly expensive car pulled up in the parking lot while Jack was playing with Bonnie doing paperwork at the lobby desk, and Genji Shimada entered, tailed by his brother moments later. Like every morning, Hanzo signed in both of them as Genji darted into the cats with a “hey” and not much else. Not that Jack was surprised, or really offended at this point. 

The younger Shimada was sixteen or so, probably the same height as his brother. His skin was visibly scarred, creeping onto and across his face. He had close cropped hair, dyed a bright green that matched the main room for the cats, and fast hands, good for dealing with many animals at once. At some point in the last few weeks, he’d let Hana paint his nails a bright bubblegum pink. Allegedly. He’d left sunglasses on his face today, as well as dark jeans and a loose tank with god-knows-what on it. (Jack didn’t know. The writing was in Japanese, if that helped.) 

His brother, as always, was a smidge more polite. In careful script, Hanzo Shimada wrote his and Genji’s names down on the volunteer sign in sheet, as well as the time. The younger Shimada had significantly less scars and a year on his brother, his hair a normal black, tied up in a ponytail. His default expression seemed to be a frown, pulling his entire face into a stern look. He and Jack spoke momentarily - Hanzo mostly talking about his and Genji’s expected hours for the summer (mostly scheduled around Genji’s doctor and physical therapy appointments, Jack assumed) and Jack telling him to come in whenever, I’m not paying you, so, and then moving onto informing him about the litter of puppies they got from the state shelter.

He didn’t see much of Hanzo after that, and Bonnie leaped into his lap. As much as Jack appreciated the enthusiasm, that was a solid fifty pounds (at least!) of dog, and Jack was a month short of forty.

Hana showed up while he was on the floor. It was 10:01, and she was clearly resisting making a joke about how long it took him to get Bonnie off him, nor how loud his back cracked when he stretched. (He wasn’t convinced it was him, and looked at Bonnie accordingly.)

“I’m taking new pictures for our Instagram today,” she told him, popping her bubblegum as she signed in. Hana had started volunteering at the rescue-sanctuary three years before, and immediately took over all social media. She was sixteen now, and allegedly, they had quite a following. (Something about being ranked right below Old Friends? For whatever that meant.) “But I’m probably going to have to give some of the animals baths first. Is the stuff in the same place?”

Jack just hummed an affirmative, and Hana smiled. “.. Did those kittens get adopted yet, or..?”

“Unfortunately for you, they did after you left yesterday,” Jack told her. “But one of the shelters called in about a new litter at about six weeks I’ll be picking up after closing today, and they’ll have to be here for at least two weeks before adoption.”

Hana beamed at that, then disappeared into the cat wing. (Twenty minutes later, he heard splashing water, hissing, a “SHIT!” (from Genji) and a “DAMN IT!” (from Hana) and tried not to laugh.)

Lúcio and Lena both came in around the same time, half an hour later, chattering excitedly, and headed to the cat and dog wings respectively. He could hear, through the walls, only dog barks from one side, and Genji, Lúcio, and Hana trying to catch a wet cat in the other.

He considered going in to help, but figured he’d just let the cat out. They’d manage it on their own. He’d help with the dogs, and get Hanzo to man the desk.

Bonnie sat by his feet. It was, all in all, an average Sunday.

* * *

 

 _Monday June 5, 2017_  

Monday afternoon, after all his volunteers had settled into their normal spots (today, Hana was in with the birds taking pictures. His regular volunteer with the birds, a college student who communicated wholly through writing and ASL, hadn’t been able to make it on Sunday, and Hana didn’t know the birds to write updated profiles on them), Jack headed to the back to file some paperwork and returned to Amélie Lacroix heading to the cats.

Right. It was Monday, and every Monday, at four thirty sharp during the school year, and two thirty over breaks, Amélie came after her therapy appointment. Jack glanced at the volunteer sign in, which noticeably lacked her name.

“Amélie,” he said, as she started to open the door to the cat wing, and she jumped slightly.

 “Mr. Morrison,” she replied, turning.

“You didn’t sign in,” he tilted his head at her ever so slightly. The French girl, today in a baggy dark sweater despite the heat and leggings, heavy on the eyeliner and pale, looked exhausted. “Are you alright?”

“I’m.. I’m fine,” Amélie tried to pull off a smile, but it came out only halfway there. “I just figured that, well. I’m not really a volunteer. I just play with cats.”

“Still counts,” he said. “That’s a solid ninety percent of what Genji does here.”

“I.. okay,” she said. She crossed back to the desk and signed in quickly, then disappeared with the cats. He considered asking about her therapy, but. Well. Jack would prefer not chance someone asking about his.

For a brief amount of time, everything was quiet, Bonnie napping next to the front desk.

Then Genji and Lena returned from running to get food. Lena signed them both back in with one hand, the other clutching a corn dog. “Amélie’s here,” she announced to no one in particular, except her mouth was full, so it came out garbled.

“What?” Genji’s brows furrowed as he pulled himself onto the lobby desk, eating his own food. “Lena, I can understand the accent or with the food, but not both.”

Lena swallowed, and Jack started to turn to head to the back, taking another adoption application to the back to be reviewed. “Amélie’s here!”

“You mean, like every Monday and Thursday?”

“Hush!” Lena frowned at him petulantly. “If I knew she was going to be here at two thirty, I would’ve gotten food hours ago.”

“Does she even know you exist?” Genji asked, crossing his legs. “I mean, you talk about her always but I don’t think she knows your name.”

“Maybe!” Lena said. “We had a class together last year. She’s said hi. Once she came and sat with Hanzo while we were playing with dogs.”

Even with his back to them, Jack knew Genji was rolling his eyes. “You could come talk to her today.”

“No!” Lena sounded worried. “I’ve gotta plan it, you know, or I’m going to look right daft.”

“Fine,” Genji snickered. “If you’re that worked up about her-”

“I am!”

“-then we’ll work out a plan for you to actually talk to her this summer.”

“And you’re sure it’ll work?” Lena asked.

“Of course it will!” Genji said. "Will you stop talking about her all the time if it does?"

 "Probably!"

Jack figured he should probably step in. Matchmaking schemes never play out like the movies, and Lena and Amélie were some of his best regular volunteers. However…

It wasn’t his problem, and he had work to do. Plus, him saying it was a bad idea might just encourage Genji. Hopefully, no one would get hurt.

 

* * *

 

 _Tuesday June 6, 2017_  

At ten, Ana dropped by.

Jack promptly left Hanzo, Hana, and Lúcio in charge, leading her into his apartment up above it all. She and Reinhardt had missed their usual Friday meeting, being that they were on their honeymoon.

His apartment wasn’t particularly spacious - it only needed to host him and Bonnie, sometimes one of the animals with separation anxiety or newborn puppies.

She made her way into his kitchen and immediately started brewing tea on the stove top, the blue of her headscarf caught in the light. They made small talk for a short while - what Fareeha’s been doing (finals, then sleep, which is apparently all teenagers do), when she was returning to her paramedic job (tomorrow), what Jack was doing for his military consulting (classified).

She had brought her own dog, a scrappy mutt of a dog she’d found in an alley and immediately claimed four years ago. It climbed on Bonnie. Bonnie seemed unperturbed.

After a certain point, she decided to start talking about her honeymoon in avid detail, and Jack listened, mainly because that was his best friend of twenty years. Even if he wouldn’t be able to look Reinhardt in the eye on Friday. He’d deal with that then.

“How’s your love life doing?” Ana asked after a pause, sipping her tea. Jack, for his part, choked on his coffee. “Meet anyone?”

“Christ, Ana, don’t just spring that on me,” Jack said as he regained his composure. “Nothing’s happened in the last few years, you know that.”

“I live in hope,” she replied. “You could try getting back out there.”

“I’m too old for that,” Jack rolled his eyes. “I got Bonnie, I’ve got the rescue, what else do I need?”

“You’re not even forty five,” Ana told him. Absently, Jack rubbed the ache in his shoulder. “Gabriel just moved back in town.”

Jack could not bring himself to be surprised at how _little he wanted to talk about this._ “Ana, don’t.”

“Jack, it’s been fifteen years, I think I should be able to bring him up every now and -”

“Ana.”

“Jack, we’ve barely brought him up since your break up-”

“It wasn’t a break up, we weren’t dating,” he sighed. He rubbed more vigorously at the shoulder, applied more pressure. He’d slept on it weird the night before and aggravated the old injury. “Please? Just for today.”

“Fine,” Ana said. “I still think you should get back out there one of these days.”

“I’m happy,” he said. “Really.”

There was a pause. “One of Fareeha’s friend’s family is looking to adopt an animal. She recommended you.”

Jack smiled, taking the change in topic gladly. “I’m glad. Dog or cat?”

“The son wants a cat, the daughter wants a dog. They’ll figure it out,” Ana smiled back at him. “I think you’ll like them - as adopters, I mean. They’re coming by on Saturday.”

* * *

 

 _Wednesday, June 7, 2017_  

Jack was out. He was picking up the new rescues, running errands. Bonnie sorted herself in with the new puppies, letting them crawl all over her, and Hanzo ran the front desk. Wednesdays weren’t busy by any means, but it was always better to be prepared.

Lúcio had brought his laptop and Genji had brought one of the pens used for adoption days and fairs outside the rescue and brought it into the lobby, bringing his favorite cats (one sanctuary and four adoptables) and settling in with them.

For the last hour, Genji had been bothering Hanzo with random questions, and Lúcio had put a pair of headphones on a cat.

After “would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses or 1 horse sized duck?”, both brothers finally noticed the cat. And the headphones.

“Lúcio,” Genji started. Lúcio hummed a vague affirmative. “What the fuck are you doing?” Except it lacked the upturn a question required. It was the most Hanzo like he’d ever sounded.

“See, I woke up in the middle of the night with one question on my mind,” Lúcio said, clicking something and watching the cat. “What music do cats prefer? And it’s been bugging me, so I brought this and I’m testing to see what music genres each cat in the rescue prefers to see if there’s a pattern.”

“That’s-”

Whatever Hanzo was about to say was cut off by the ringing of the bell denoting the front door opening, and both Shimadas looked up. (Lúcio remained watching the brown furball wearing headphones. This one (Peanut) was liking acoustics, so far.)

A young man - a teenager, really -  entered. He was- Tibetan, Genji guessed. Something in that geographic area. Nepalese? He smiled, (Genji's brain noticed he had dimples, and then fixated on the thought. For some reason), and he dressed simple. He was. Well. (Pretty, Genji’s mind filled in, leaving him suddenly self conscious about the scars on his hands, his neck, his face. He wished he had more cloth on his person, despite the heat and impracticality of it when handling sharp clawed kittens.)

“Hello,” he said. His voice was smooth. “I heard you’re accepting volunteers?”

“We are,” Hanzo answered. “Jack is out though, he usually handles-”

“It’s fine,” Genji interrupted. He started to stand. “You can start with the cats, I’ll show you around. I’m Genji. Genji Shimada. The one at the desk is my brother Hanzo and the one putting headphones on cats is Lúcio.”

The boy smiled brighter. Genji’s heart thudded. Over the boy’s shoulder, Hanzo arched a single brow. “Zenyatta. Tekhartha Zenyatta.”

* * *

 

 _Thursday June 8, 2017_  

Jack wakes up too early again on Thursday.

The blue clock glows “3:21” and Bonnie moves to rest next to his chest, licking the sweat off his palms as he writhes to kick off the sheets. At least he only barely remembers this dream, but he knows what it was about. It’s always-

_the light, bright, the feel of shrapnel in his shoulder as his back hits the ground, and someone - Gabriel! - says his name, far away, as the building they’re near goes up in flames and_

\- Jack shakes himself awake, gets out of bed. Bonnie lets out a whine, but follows him anyway. He’s not going to get back to sleep, not tonight, so he may as well get started on paperwork. He’d sleep early tonight, he supposed.

Hours later, he’s gone through all opening processes and settled into the lobby desk, Bonnie lingering, concerned, at his feet. The first in today is Bastion - apparently short for Sebastian, some inside joke with someone Jack didn’t know - signs hello and signs himself in. He settles a written report on the birds this week on the lobby desk. Jack usually asked volunteers these questions while they’re there, but Jack’s ASL is notoriously terrible, so Bastion decided to just type it up.

It has got sanctuary and adoptable animals, and it is immaculately organized. They share a pleased nod and Bastion disappears into the back, Jack reviewing it and rubbing his shoulder.

At 9:33 both Shimadas appear, like always, and Efi comes by at 9:45. It’d been a few weeks, it’s nice to see her. She brought some contraption to help one of the cats with a broken leg climb on the top of her favorite cat tree.

“I’ll install it later,” she tells him, and goes back with the sanctuary horses. They’re old ones, practically unadoptable for some reason or another, but Efi loves them and Jack knows how to handle them after years on a farm. The latest, he’d let Efi name Orisa, and she’d taken quite a shine to her.

Hana showed up at 10:00 like every day, perched on the lobby desk doing.. something on one of their social medias and making fun of the music he was playing today. (“This song is older than I am, Jack,” she told him frankly. “A lot of things are,” he agreed, but let her mess with the playlist anyway.)

He’d met their newest volunteer on Wednesday after he’d gotten back, and Zenyatta showed up at 10:13. Jack was going to say something, but Genji cut in, telling Jack he’d “handle Zenyatta” and throwing an arm around the other boy’s shoulder.

Hana looked at Jack. Jack looked at Hana. They both shrugged.

The rest of the day blends together. Lúcio appears, and he and Hana both try to explain something about the traffic onto their page. Jack acts like this makes sense to him. They add music to his playlist when they think he’s not looking.

Amélie shows up at two thirty, and in the cat rooms, Lena sits with Genji and Zenyatta, waiting and trying to get involved in the other two’s conversation. (Today: “How can you prove anyone else exists?” “My mind isn’t cruel enough to imagine you up.”) When Amélie enters, Genji talks her into sitting with them.

Lena manages a few sentences of small talk, gets short answers in reply. At one point, she makes a joke about the newest cat (her name is Penny, affectionately Shithead, and she loves only Amélie) and gets half a smile in return.

Lena’s face burns, and for a long moment she freezes, staring at Amélie’s half smile, grinning awkwardly back at her, before breaking out of her reverie with a “S-sorry, loves! I just remembered I told Hanzo I’d help him with something. Later!” She dumps the cat in her arms into Genji’s lap, and all but runs out.

“Some people are just beyond help,” Genji murmurs into a cat’s neck.

“What?” Zenyatta asks.

“Nothing.” Genji readjusts himself. "Anyway, how would we have all these thousands of years of history if everyone else didn't exist."

"Your mind created them, clearly."

"My mind's not cruel enough to create dinosaurs and ninjas at a time where I'm not."

In the lobby, Jack is pretending not to notice The Mountain Goats playing (and not his 'dad rock', which. He wasn't that old, was he?) (oh God he is), watching Satya and Hanzo with a pair of dogs - Shih Tzus -  through the window into the room as he does paperwork.

Hana’s also watching, but for very different reasons.

“You can go talk to her,” Lúcio says as he slides headphones off his latest cat, jotting down notes (Mars likes electronica).

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hana says, then, “I don’t want to bother her.”

“Get her to play with those kittens with you next time she’s here, then,” Lúcio offers. “That’s a conversation starter.”

“I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hana says, but she looks like she’s filing the information away, a slight flush to her cheeks.

“You’re a terrible liar,” Jack tells her without looking up from the application he’s reviewing, and ignores her look of betrayal.

* * *

 

 _Friday June 9, 2017_  

Every Friday, Jack closes up at five.

It’s earlier than every other night, he knows. He goes through all the usual - feeding, etc. He has the volunteers walk them before they leave.

Every Friday, Jack enters a community building at 6:30 sharp, and enters the room with all the other veterans who decided to come. A support group, if you will. Bonnie sits by his feet and he sits next to Ana and Reinhardt, but he still never says much. Mass vulnerability has never put him at ease.

He knows, rationally, if there were anywhere beyond a therapist’s office he should be able to talk about his PTSD, it would be here. But..

It’s enough to just listen. A selfish comfort, he thinks. All taking and no giving.

At some point Bonnie crawls into his lap (a hard fought battle, given that she was no small dog. She seemed convinced she was a Cocker Spaniel, and nothing Jack did could dissuade her) and he lulls himself into something resembling ease as everyone else speaks, and then he musters a few sentences, and rests at that.

After, like every Friday, he, Ana, and Reinhardt go out to get dinner. This week, Ana picks Ethiopian food, and Jack and Reinhardt oblige her.

It’s - fun. It’s fun being out with them, even if they talk more after sessions than he does. Reinhardt waves his fork as he speaks and damn near takes out one of Jack’s eyes (“Jack! We could match,” Ana grins at him, and even Jack has to laugh at that). The new paramedic Ana’s work brought on while she’s gone is ‘practically an infant’, the new dog Jack picked up last Saturday has eaten the ends off of six different people’s shoelaces. It’s easy conversation, and Jack is smiling.

When there’s a lull in conversation, Ana goes, “You know, Jack, I was talking to Gabriel the other day,” and Jack barely resists groaning, instead adjusts himself to better look at her. He knows his mouth is pulling into a frown and his brows furrowing, but. His poker face was never good, anyway.

He studies Ana’s expression. It’s a schooled neutral, but there’s something in it, a slight worry, a crease in her brow. Her hands are folded on the table, and her trigger finger twitches anxiously, a nervous habit she’d developed in the years since her forced retirement.

Jack sighs. It’s practically imperceptible, but he knows beyond a doubt they heard it, even through the clamor of their surroundings. “And?”

“He’s coming next week,” Ana says. “He’s interested in coming to group, but he’s so busy finishing packing that he couldn’t come this week.”

Jack swallows slightly. “Don’t know why you’re telling me.”

“I figured you would want to know in advance,” Ana says.

“I don’t own group, Gabriel can come whenever he’d like,” and Jack _knows_ he sounds hostile, he’s being (forgive the pun) a jackass, and he knows there’s something stirring, and he wishes that he hadn’t dropped Bonnie off at home.

There’s a terse pause. Reinhardt breaks it after a moment, going, “Relax! We are out to have fun among friends, yes?” and if Reinhardt didn’t have a ring on his finger or eyes only for Ana, Jack swears to God he could lean over and kiss him.

They dance around the subject of Gabriel and sensitive subjects for the rest of the night, even though Jack knows that he can’t evade it for forever, especially now that Gabriel’s back in town.

( _Christ, Gabriel’s back in town.)_

At ten, they’re unofficially kicked out of the Ethiopian place, and Jack returns home. He has a long day tomorrow. He pulls Bonnie close to him and hopes that he'll sleep easy tonight.

* * *

 

 _Saturday June 10, 2017_  

Saturday is another bad night for him. His shoulder is aching like a _motherfucker,_ and he wakes up shaking again. The same minutes on repeat.

He gets up early again. Stretches his legs, cracks his back. The clock reads 4:04. Saturdays are busy, he knows. Most people who have applications approved come on Saturdays, since they have the most volunteers and they bring out all the pens and the info sheets. They show off on Saturdays, and its hectic as hell, since random people and people looking to adopt come in to see the animals.

Everything’s set up and ready by seven, when the volunteers start appearing. They don’t start letting adopters see the animals until eight, Jack doesn’t start finishing paperwork with them until eight thirty.

The beginning of the day goes fast. Six - four dogs, a cat, and a bird - are gone by nine thirty, and by noon it goes up to fourteen. (The record is twenty seven in three hours.)

A few people bring the dogs they adopted from the rescue by to visit - Mei Ling Zhou and Aleksandra Zaryanova bring their husky Snowball and their bear dog Ana. Snowball settles on Bonnie. Bonnie looks at Jack despairingly while he congratulates Mei and Aleksandra on their engagement. Angela drops by with her own dog, the med student looking tired but pleased.

It’s almost starting to slow down by two, and Jack finds himself reviewing numbers at the Lobby desk so he knows how many to take from the kill shelters this week. It’s all interrupted when the door opens again, and Jack looks up.

In front is a teen boy dressed as a cowboy, of all things, arguing with a girl with a purple undercut. (Jack is unbothered by all this. He’s seen weirder. He sees Genji most days. The boy had gone through some weird phases.) They’re arguing (cats vs dogs) and Jack almost gets up to talk to them when his eyes meet with the two’s probably father, and -

Oh, Christ. Jack knows that face. _Jack knows that face._

Without a doubt, Jack knows this is Fareeha’s friend’s family, and quietly swears to kill Ana. He gets up entirely too quick, tells Hana he’ll be back, please handle the family that just entered, and grabs his paperwork, disappearing into one of the back rooms. He can hear the blood pumping in his ears, his heart moving fast. Bonnie noses him nervously as he collapses into a chair, jumping into his lap.

You’d think, after fifteen years, he’d stop getting worked up about him, but no.

Gabriel Reyes is in the lobby of his rescue, and Jack’s brilliant choice is to _run away._

(It all comes to him very clear, now, but only in snippets, breaths of memories. _Arguing in basic, Gabriel’s leg pressed against his as he elucidated a point - late nights - on the field, the hospital - the bomb, the argument, the way his shoulder aches when he thinks about Gabriel-)_

His breathing is coming out shaky, and all he can do to try and slow himself down is stroke circles into her back, idle and distant, the kind of absent movements that soothed without having to muster effort. By the time he’s composed himself enough to leave his office, it’s five.

Gabriel is gone.

* * *

 

_forget your lust for the rich man’s gold_

_all that you need in this is your soul_

_and you can do this if you try_

_all i want for you is to be satisfied_

_-simple man, lynyrd skynyrd/shinedown_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first long fiiiiic!! this chapter is admittedly clunky but there's a lot to set up. this is outlined to the end and will DEFINITELY be 11 chapters. i'm planning on updating every monday (pst) and it'll be on tumblr ( @bisymmetra ) if i cant. i also do prompts there, so.
> 
> title is from layla by eric clapton. writing playlist: alberta - eric clapton, layla - eric clapton, tears in heaven - eric clapton, knocked up - kings of leon, with arms wide open - creed, slide - goo goo dolls, name - goo goo dolls, iris - goo goo dolls, acoustic # 3 - goo goo dolls, let her cry - hootie and the blowfish, simple man - shinedown, vienna - billy joel, the boxer - simon & garfunkel, landslide - fleetwood mac, she’s not there - the zombies, smooth - santana, 100 years - five for fighting, breathe (2 am) - anna nalick, here comes the sun - the beatles

**Author's Note:**

> the entire soundtrack of this is like, dad music, the mountain goats, and a handful of other songs. (closing time by semisonic, in later chapters :) )
> 
> my tumblr is @bisymmetra, drop a line? i take prompts. also this is loosely dedicated to @snowsheba due to a conversation about overwatch and dogs (also jesse mccree being a Cat Person is 100% on her).


End file.
